WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials announced that they had invoked executive authority to shut down 110 commercial driving schools that they said are connected to more than 5,000 truck drivers who failed English language proficiency tests. During a news conference Monday in Detroit, leaders of the departments of Transportation and Homeland Security singled out California as the biggest problem state. The federal officials were joined by Marcus Coleman and his 7-year-old daughter Dalilah, who in 2024 was critically injured when the driver of an 18-wheeler — an immigrant from India — crashed into their vehicle in the Mojave Desert.
Mullin and Duffy did not say how many of the closures are in California. Federal officials are also launching a nationwide audit of third-party testers who are authorized by states to verify commercial driver’s license applicants’ skills. Homeland Security investigators, meanwhile, were conducting a coordinated sweep Monday of more than 200 training schools in 23 states.
Investigators with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have also issued notices seeking to shut down another 160 training schools where they said they found unlicensed instructors, missing documentation and inadequate space for drivers to learn necessary maneuvers. Federal officials said that drivers certified by those schools were linked to 239 commercial motor vehicle-related deaths. The Trump administration has revoked the commercial licenses of more than 28,000 drivers over English language proficiency failures since June 2025.
On Monday, Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, cited Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in Fresno, which certified 36 drivers who were later cited for English language proficiency violations. At another school in California, Barrs said, operators said their classroom was the back end of an open semi-trailer, and their primary instructor was out of the country. The Transportation Department said that, of the 110 trucker schools, 11 are in California, 10 in Florida, 13 in Pennsylvania and 13 in Texas, with smaller numbers in different states and others online.
An agency spokesperson said those providers were immediately stopped from being able to certify their students’ training. A driver must have certified completion of training before they can receive a commercial driver’s license. Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson in Newsom’s office, said California has strong safeguards for commercial drivers.
According to the federal government’s own data, drivers holding a CDL issued by California are involved in fatal crashes at a rate 42% below the national average.” The announcements follow a longstanding effort by the Trump administration to target immigrant commercial truck drivers — especially those from California. Soon after returning to the White House, President Trump signed an executive order requiring commercial truck drivers to prove they are proficient in English. In early August, the Motor Carrier Safety Administration moved to codify those language requirements through the federal rulemaking process.
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